For the next while, we'll take a break from our focus on pranayama and read from Dr. David Frawley's brilliant tiny book Yoga - the greater tradition from Mandala Wisdom Library (2008). A Vedic and Ayurvedic scholar and teacher, Dr. Frawley has somehow fit the essence of yoga's teachings into just under 100 pages. My copy is so well loved that almost every page is dog eared...

To begin, a little about what yoga "is" and what we "are": "Yoga is a universal teaching, conveying that the entire universe dwells within us. The entire universe - all time, space and existence - dwells in the small space within our hearts. Becoming that is Yoga."

If you're in class this week, we'll explore opening the 'doors' of the heart, and you can hear the Atma Hridaye mantra, about the individual and universal heart as one....

We've been exploring the breath and lengthening out the exhale gently and without strain. This week let's observe the slight pause at the ends of the breath, particularly at the end of the exhale. This pause is not holding the breath but simply letting the breath dissolve out fully and 'waiting without waiting' for a new in-breath to arise. The pause is a madhya - an evocative space between - that invites us into presence and points to the underlying ground or source of all that is and all we are...

The author is Chande Meng, an MBSR teacher: "A lifetime is not what is between the moments of birth and death. A lifetime is one moment between my two little breaths. The present, the here, the now, that's all the life I get. I live each moment in the full; in kindness, in eace, without regret."

Sometimes when we begin to explore expanding our breath (pranayama) we strive - trying to take "deep breaths", pushing or pulling the breath, or "holding" the breath to the point of tension. If we trust that somewhere deep inside our body knows how to breathe and the Universe knows how to breathe through us, perhaps we can relax, release the breath and simply receive - allowing a natural inhale to flow into the space we have allowed.

Try this - rest quietly, letting the body sink into the support of the surface it's resting on, and simply observe the breath for a bit. After a while, take a few smooth conscious out-breaths with a softly open mouth (somewhere between fogging a mirror and a sigh). Let the exhale be long and gently compressive of the whole torso, but not to the point of tension or strain. After each full exhale, pause and let yourself be "in-spired"...

Our quote is from Laurence Binyon, an English poet and playwright who survived WWI. Instead of thinking it through, try letting it wash over your body and communicate with your cells as you breathe: "We too should make ourselves empty, that the great soul of the Universe may fill us with its breath."

Breathing practice is pranayama, sometimes mistranslated as "breath control" (prana-yama). Perhaps more accurately, breathing practice is breath expansion and freedom (prana-ayama). I particularly like this quote given its source - Sri BKS Iyengar. While it speaks specifically to the breath it could equally apply to how we meet our asanas, ourselves, and life in general - with compassion, curiosity and wonderment. Happy exploring!

The breath must be enticed or cajoled [or invited and inspired], like catching a horse in a field; not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in your hand.

Author

Misha Butot RCSW, ERYT 500 is a longtime clinical social worker and senior yoga teacher living in Victoria, BC